Vampire Novella
by Skie2
Summary: She was a substitute art teacher with a family tree she didn't even know about. He was powerful, one of the first. This short novella is just a brief taste of what might be. This is an original work.


I was a high school teacher, well working on being one. I was still in my senior year of college and doing some part-time work on the side to help pay bills. I was the bottom of the barrel for substitute teachers. They only called me in when they had nobody better. I got the phone call on Saturday afternoon; there was a job in a Podunk town that was barely big enough to have two high schools. One of the teachers was out for a couple of weeks and they needed someone to cover.

I had nothing pressing to do, so I dropped my dog off at my parents and packed my suitcase. I took a few minutes to Google the address. It seemed easy to find. I double-checked my bag for everything that I would need, called my professor's voicemail, and left a message saying where I was and what I was doing. I grabbed my laptop and hit the road.

The school district would be paying my expenses to stay in the local cheap motel. At least I had good music for the trip, and Wi-Fi at the motel. It was going to be a long three-hour drive.

I spent Sunday getting settled in and checking out the town. I enjoyed an afternoon walk around town to see the shops. That's right, the town was small enough to walk around and not break a sweat. At least it was nice. The streets were clean and children were laughing. There were a lot of kids too. You could tell it was a farming community just by the look of the high school kids. The guys had the deep farmer's tans, and the girls looked like wannabe country stars. I strolled on by the high school to take a quick look around before deciding to stop and get something to eat.

After a quick cafe salad and tea, I went back to the motel for some good old-fashioned college student studying. My friends always joked with me that I had to go to school to go to school. You would have to be there to get the joke.

While I was curled up in the flat motel bed, that felt more like cardboard covered in cloth, I had a sudden realization that my life was boring. I worked at a school, went to school, and spent no time doing anything but homework and studying. Sure, I got the occasional out of town stint for a subbing job, but that was hardly anything to brag about. I rarely read for leisure anymore. With that thought in mind, I decided it was time to put away the books and get some sleep. Maybe a few days' vacation from the books would do me good.

My dream that night seemed to be surreal. I was walking through the high school with students wandering around on their way to classes. I don't know how, but in my dream, I knew where I was going. I headed to the classroom that I was going to substitute. I had the feeling that I something was watching me, but I just shrugged it off. It was only a dream, right?

I opened the door to the classroom and stepped inside. There was nobody there. It seemed odd that none of my students were in my class yet, but for some reason I wasn't too worried. I set my things down at the teacher's desk at the front of the classroom and went back to close the door behind me.

When I turned back again to the desk, there was a man standing there. He was gorgeous. He looked like some sort of golden Adonis, and I had never seen someone look so... There. He just stood staring at me, and I stared right back. I couldn't say anything; my voice seemed frozen in my throat. I just stared in his eyes, the most amazing sapphire eyes that I had ever seen.

It was as if he looked straight into my soul. The eyes that I though so amazing looked like liquid sapphires. He was blonde, tall, and muscular, with a predatory look to him. He reminded me of a hawk. I took an involuntary step towards him as he held out a hand to me. I realized that I was actually halfway across the room now. I don't know why, but I wanted to take his hand more than anything else. I knew him, his face; it was etched into my heart as if it had been there since the day I was born.

I took the last few steps and slowly put my hand in his. He slid his hand around mine and tugged me swiftly into an embrace against his body that left my knees weak. I fit in his arms as if they were made to hold me. My body melded with him. He leaned down and gently placed a kiss on my lips, my cheek, and then gently upon my neck. Suddenly he reared his head back, and teeth that I had not even noticed before punctured my throat as I cried out.

I bolted upright in bed from my dream, heart racing and breathing heavily. It was not in a bad way either. I was not afraid; the dream was more erotic than fear inspiring. I looked at the clock and found it was just after five. I had an hour before I even needed to get ready for the day.

I took a few minutes to write in my journal, and then went to get my shower. I spent a good amount of time just letting the hot water pound on my back and neck as I remember my dream. My thoughts lingered a bit longer before I finally climbed out and got dressed for the day.

It never takes me long to get ready, so I was fixing my hair in a matter of minutes. Thankfully, I had one of those short, stylish haircuts. A quick dab of eyeliner and lip-gloss and I was ready for the day. Sadly, I still had an hour before I needed to leave. It was out of the question to lie back down, so I pulled out my laptop and hooked into the free Wi-Fi to check my email and Facebook. There was nothing more than a response from my professor acknowledging my absence. I had nothing better to do, so I finally decided to head to school early.

My day would have been completely normal, except for the fact that when I walked into the classroom it was as if my dream had come to life. I had a moment of brief panic before thinking that it could still be my imagination. The room looked like any normal art class. Throughout the rest of the day the students tried to get away with things they normally couldn't do, like talking in class and general antics of being where they shouldn't. It was like any normal day for a substitute teacher.

I spent the rest of the evening going over art projects at my desk. It was just my luck that Monday was grading day. By the time I was done, my neck was stiff and it was after six. I packed everything back up and headed to my car. It was already almost dark outside. Apparently being nestled so close to the mountains meant the sun was gone sooner.

I sighed and hurried to my car. I hated the dark; it always felt like someone was watching me. The darkness was closing in around me, strange I thought. Why did it always seem like there were not enough street lamps at night. I would rather have a full day of sunshine over the darkness. It always made me a happier person.

My car was at the end of the parking lot, the joys of being a teacher. I got to the door and reached to unlock it when I caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned and found nothing there. I shrugged it off, heart racing, and tried to open the door again.

I saw another flash of movement out of the corner of my eye again and looked up, startled. Again, nothing was there. Was I just letting my imagination run rampant to freak myself for no reason? I shook my head and took a deep breath before turning the key in the lock. As I did so, I felt movement right behind me, and I was spun so forcefully that I lost my balance and dropped everything in my arms. I landed on my knees, scraping at least one of them.

I looked around and saw nothing there. My heart was racing. I knew that I had not tripped on anything; I was standing right next to my car! I grabbed at my things and scrambled to my feet. Why wasn't anybody else outside? I tried once more to get in my car, this time successful, and without looking, I slammed it into gear and took off out of the parking lot.

After a few minutes of driving, I was able to calm down a bit. Once I got back to the motel room and assessed the damage, I felt strangely calm. Something had to have assaulted me, but I didn't know what. My knees were scraped up; blood had run down into my stockings. My palms were bruised and my poor laptop had met an untimely demise against the asphalt. There went all of my homework for the past month.

I bolted the door and climbed into the shower. I cleaned up the blood on my knees and changed into some clean clothes, then I ordered a pizza and sat down to contemplated what I would do about my computer. I figured that I could put off the assault for now, since I was pretty much all right. I would have to inform the principal about it in the morning.

I spent the rest of the short evening curled up writing in my journal. I felt the need to put my dream down in further detail on paper. As nine o'clock rolled around, I had a wave of exhaustion roll over me. I'm not sure why, but after all that had happened I just felt extremely exhausted so I crawled into bed for the night.

The dream started about the same. I was walking down the hallway in the school to the classroom that I taught. I opened the door, and again the same man was there. He was leaning up against my desk, arms loosely folded across his chest. He was in greater detail this time. His blond hair was a pale gold, and he wore a black dress shirt with a pair of black slacks. His complexion was alabaster. He stood there staring at me, and I had the same sensation of him seeing into my soul.

I stood in the doorway, afraid to take another step into the room. He just held his position. We stood there, looking at each other for some time. It was just a dream, so I'm not sure how long had passed, but finally he spoke one word to me. It was said so softly that it seemed to caress my mind and down my spine. "Rina." I closed my eyes and held my breath. I felt like I was melting into his voice, and my body reached with everything that I had towards him.

He held me to his chest, the sensation of cloth against my face somehow so very erotic. How could there be this many sensations in a dream? His hands were so gentle, so soft, they held on to my shoulders and wrapped around my waist. My breath caught in my throat as I tried to speak. He shook his head and bent to kiss me.

Warmth melted me even further into his arms until I was so pliant that he could have worked me like clay. He kissed down my jaw and neck again, but this time instead of rearing back to bite me, he placed a gentle kiss at the hollow of my throat. Very gently, as if he were not moving at all, he slid teeth back into my neck. I woke suddenly, my heart pounding. Why was I having these dreams? I had not been reading anything to do with romance or vampires lately. With a loud sigh, I rolled back over and tried to get back to sleep.

The next day came and was much like the previous. I went to work, taught, and graded assignments. I had spoken with the principal as I had planned, but he only wanted me to file a police report. I had to tell him that I would think about it, and would get back to him. I didn't want to cause a big fuss.

I didn't want to stay late today, being at the school after dark was not a very appealing thought. My laptop was still out of commission, so I was very bored.

I decided to go downtown for some window-shopping. It was the typical small town setting. There was even a drug store ice cream parlor. I ended up doing a lot of walking, so by the time the sun started to go down my feet were killing me. It wasn't as bad here, there were plenty of streetlights and they were bright. There was several people out on the streets. I stopped by a fast food place, grabbed something simple for dinner, and started to walk back to the motel.

It was quiet as I walked back to the motel. I think that is what I liked the most about this small town. There weren't many people always running around making noise. My thoughts came crashing to a sudden halt. I had just been listening to the birds and other small animals making their little noises as they settled down for the evening, but they had suddenly stopped.

I looked around and realized that I was almost to the motel, but nobody was around. I know that I had seen a few people walking down this street; in fact, I had passed a couple just a few minutes back. I turned around slowly and noticed that the streetlights were dim again, and nobody was in sight.

I had a moment of thinking, "How strange," and continued to walk. I hadn't gotten more than a few steps before I was shoved forward so violently that my food went flying and my purse skid away. I landed face first into the concrete, breathless and in shock. I lay there, trying to catch my breath.

There were footsteps, but when I lifted my head to look nobody was there. I started to slowly pick myself up from the ground, but there was a knee in the middle of my back to prevent it. All I could see were the black boots and jeans of someone holding me down.

"You should leave, tonight." A masculine voice hissed at me. Without waiting for me to answer, he kicked me hard in the ribs and was gone. I couldn't breathe for what seemed like a lifetime. I started to shake so badly that I couldn't stand up. I forgot about my purse and food. I don't know how, but I was able to make it to the room, before I realized that my keys were out there, in the darkness.

I cowered against my door for a moment before I was able to collect myself. I don't know who, or what was out for me, but I could do one of two things. I could cower and be afraid, or I could remember all of the training that my parents had made me take growing up, and defend myself.

I braved my way back to find my purse and hurried back to the motel room. I locked myself in securely and collapsed onto my bed. My mind was racing. I didn't have any enemies that I knew about, and I was fairly positive none of my students would go to such lengths to drive me out of town because they didn't like my teaching methods. Besides, the voice had been quite masculine, and quite deep.

I finally drifted off to sleep. I didn't want to dream, I was beginning to get frustrated in all the bad ways. Once again, I was walking down a hallway, but this time was different. It was a new place, very old and elegant. The carpet was deep claret red, the walls dark mahogany. There were chandeliers, small ones, hanging from the ceiling. Several old portraits were lining the walls, hanging in antique frames on what looked to be real silk wallpaper. I was barefoot, and the carpet was so soft that my feet sank into it.

My dream was so real that I was wearing the same clothing I had fallen asleep in, bloodstains and all. There was a door at the end of the hallway, gilded in gold. It had a large brass handle and moved soundlessly on well-oiled hinges when I opened it. The room was dark, and there was something classical playing very softly in the background, something full of raw pain and lust.

There, standing by the fireplace stood the man of my dreams, literally. His clothing was different this time, all wine red and black. He wore a tailored coat, like an old English gentleman. His hair was slicked back, though it still curled softly around his ears. He held a wine glass in his hand, but it was empty. There was a mountain of frothy lace at his wrists.

He set the wine glass down and held a hand out to me, expectantly. I started to move silently toward him, across the room. My eyes never left his. It was as if I was in a trance and didn't want to come out of it. He led me over to the windows, their curtains drawn back to reveal a beautiful moon that was full and ringed in red. He had his hands on my shoulders as he leaned down close to whisper my name once more in my ear. I felt shivers run across my body.

"Rina, my dear, sweet Rina. I am sorry." He whispered, his voice caressing along my spine. Then he bit me, so gently that I never felt the fangs pierce my neck. He drank, and drank from me this time. I didn't awaken from my dream as he held me close, wrapped in his arms and scent, and caresses. The more he drank from me the fainter I felt. Everything was just slipping away into a gray fog, and I didn't mind at all. He held me tightly and that is all I could think of. Finally, though I didn't know it, he laid my body very gently on the ground. I had a fleeting moment where I realized that this was no dream, then my eyes fluttered closed for the last time.


End file.
